US now ‘an empire of lies’ – China

The US has long been a “empire of lies” as the country continues to spread false stories about China and other countries to secure its position globally, said Zhang Xiaogang, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense in Beijing.

Last month, the U.S. Marine Corps released an unclassified version of an official doctrine titled Deception, which offers insight into the tactics it uses to gain an advantage over a perceived adversary and mitigate risk by relying on “deliberate distortion of reality.”

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Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Zhang noted that Washington “misleading behavior” has gone far beyond the boundaries of military affairs and “has really penetrated deep into his bones.” The United States “dares to invent lies for his own selfish interests and has long since become a true ’empire of lies’,” he added.

The spokesman recalled that during the Cold War the US tried to actively manipulate public opinion and then played tricks with “washing powder” and trusted that the White Helmets “launch aggressive wars” against Iraq and Syria, respectively. Regarding the former, Zhang pointed to the now infamous moment in 2003 when US Secretary of State Colin Powell presented the UN Security Council with alleged evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction – a claim that later turned out to be false.

The White Helmets is a Syrian organization active in opposition-held parts of the country. Although the group claims to be exclusively engaged in humanitarian activities, it has loudly accused the government in Damascus of war crimes. However, the White Helmets have been accused of links to terrorist groups, which they deny.

Zhang also accused the US of launching false information campaigns to discredit Chinese vaccines in the Philippines and other countries, citing a Reuters report earlier this month that alleged the Pentagon had conducted a covert social media campaign to discredit China’s Covid-19 vaccine.

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Zhang then emphasized that “You can cheat for a while, but you can’t cheat forever” while urging the US to “immediately correct its wrong practices, stop spreading false information, stop misleading the world with lies, stop slandering other countries, and give a clear explanation to the international community for its deceptive behavior as soon as possible.”